Vino Rosso starts September red-hot with three MdSpWt winners in two days

Vino Rosso rocketed to second on the First-Crop sire list with three maiden special weight winners in the first two days of September, two coming at Del Mar and a third at Delaware Park.

The first of the trio of winners came Sept. 1 at Del Mar when April Vintage took a five-furlong turf race by 1 ¼-lengths. Bred in Florida by Loren Nichols, April Vintage sold for $175,000 a the 2023 OBS Spring Sale of 2-year-olds in training to her owner Peter Redekop. April Vintage’s third dam At the Half was a graded stakes winner at two and the dam of $1.8 million earner Lu Ravi. April Vintage is a half-sister to Bolt d’Oro’s stakes-placed Arman.

On Sept. 2 at Del Mar, Wine Me Up won a six-furlong contest for 2-year-olds by 1 ½-lengths in front-running style. The chestnut colt, who was making his debut, is trained by Bob Baffert for Mike Pegram, Karl Watson and Paul Weitman. That trio purchased the colt for $300,000 this June at the OBS 2-year-old sale. Wine Me Up was bred by Ken & Sarah Ramsey and is one of five winners out of his stakes-winning dam Deanaallen’skitten.

Rounding out the trio was Lady Cha Cha in a in a one-mile turf race on Sept. 2 at Delaware Park. Like Wine Me Up, Lady Cha Cha led the entire trip, winning by three-quarters of a length. The bay filly is owned by Bach Stables LLC and bred by English Range Farm. She sold for $110,000 at the 2022 OBS Winter Mixed Sale.

Vino Rosso now has nine individual winners and $712,606 in progeny earnings, second only to fellow Spendthrift stallion Maximus Mischief.